1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a color printing system, and more particularly, to a color printing system capable of reproducing color according to a user preference and a region where a color printer is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a method employing a look-up table is widely used to reproduce a color copy similar to an original color in a color printer. The method of employing the look-up table is generally adopted in a printer or a scanner that experiences severe color distortion, and is capable of reliably expressing color variations over the entire color gamut. However, not only is it difficult to prepare the look-up table, but also the look-up table requires a large memory. Therefore, since a process for preparing the look-up table is very complicated and causes inconvenience because the color measurement is manually performed, a look-up table that is uniformly prepared by color printer manufacturers is employed in the conventional color printer.
Meanwhile, with the progress of color printing and the increase in international trade, color printers of the same brand are extensively used in various regions in the world.
However, there are colors that correspond with the preferences of inhabitants of particular regions or localities. The color preferences may reflect the emotion of inhabitants living in a specific region, so that the color preference corresponds to a color of cultural impact. For example, the Chinese like a red color, and Europeans are in favor of blue-based colors. In addition, since Asians and Westerners have different cultures and skin colors, they have a different color sense regarding flesh tones. Such a color preference may apply not only to the skin color, but also to the colors that people have seen continuously from one's childhood, such as colors in the sky, or vegetation in that region.
However, as the uniform look-up table is conventionally used according to the types of color printers, the color correction is uniformly performed without taking the color preference in each region into consideration.
In order to solve such problems, Korean Patent No. 601718 discloses a technology of reproducing colors according to the color preferences of users in each country by confirming the current location of a color printer by using a GPS (global positioning system), downloading a color conversion look-up table corresponding to each country code from a server based on each country code, and converting the color of a document by using the downloaded look-up table.
However, since the above-mentioned approach requires the GPS to confirm the location of the color printer and download the color conversion look-up table corresponding to each country code from the server after recognizing each country code, the above-mentioned approach has a complicated structure while being expensive and slow.